February 2020 started with a great weekend. I took just Nell to Reid's basketball game. The week before I'd taken just Coraline. It was kind of nice to have just one kid there with me to cheer on big brother. She came dressed as a vet, ready to play with her friend Ellen B.
Afterward, I had to run some errands at Target and I told Ben "I don't want to take any of the girls with me, because they always beg for toys." And yeah, that's a picture of Reid sobbing because I won't let him use his own money to buy that (overpriced) minecraft panda. Before this I had taken him to the Oshkosh outlet to pick out a few new shirts that were on a great clearance sale. Really, we had a wonderful time together ... but leaving Target was rough. Just as bad as if I'd taken a 3 year old instead. Sigh.
First, we headed to the library to get our final prizes (new books), and then we celebrated with our free kid's buffets at Pizza Ranch. Going to a restaurant is such a special treat for these kiddos. They were pretty excited about it all.
Sunday's weather was beautiful, and they were super excited about that too.
Like a bunch of puppies out the window on our ride home from church.
Coraline seems to love my job at the Y the most. It is the perfect place for kids her age. There's never a shortage of 4-5 year olds to play with. Two of her buddies from 4K are even pretty regular there.
Mara Joy was pretty proud of her make up this particular morning. It is pretty miraculous to get her to pose for a picture, so you know she really wanted to show this off! But less than 2 hours later the poor girl was puking!
And it turns out that getting knocked down by a stomach bug (or was it another ear infection?) also leads to some nice holding still poses. I do remember that I had to work that afternoon, so poor Ben came home early to take care of the kids. There were a few days like that at the beginning of February.
The kids also started swim lessons in February. Out of the four lessons they had, all four kids only attended one of them! Reid's the kid who hasn't missed a class, but it's the girls that actually need to learn how to swim. Ha!
Reid had his parent teacher conference this month, and this picture right here sums up everything I love about his 3rd grade year.
I love that he is finally reading chapter books all on his own. I love that he takes so much pride and ownership in his classroom. I love that several of his best friends (Ben in particular) are in his class. And I love that he made a concerted effort to include another child because "maybe if he had a friend in class he would behave a little better." Ol' Riedo just warms my heart. He had kind of a rough day today, and to cheer him up I read him some old blog posts about him from back in 2017. It was sweet to lay with him and reminisce in the early evening hours. I sure love that boy.
You can see that he won in the end. He eventually went back to Target to buy his beloved Panda. Stuffed animals have always been a favorite toy for my kids. And this particular morning I saw that quite clearly. Reid and Nell had already hopped on the bus to school when I noticed how nicely he stacked his (current) three favorite (and most new) stuffed animals on the rocking chair. Then I saw Coraline's giant rainbow sloth tucked up on the couch right across from them.
Silly kids.
That same afternoon Mara and I headed to Festival for some groceries and she had to take out each Paw Patrol stuffy and give them each a kiss "(bye (name)" included) before we left.
Coraline also had her parent teacher conference. You can sure tell her teacher loves her and her sweet presence in their special inclusion class. Also, "does she tell you she is going to marry River?" Oh, that girl is so boy crazy! (But also, she has exceptional taste for a preschooler).
Reid was pretty stoked his paper airplane was a winner during his class science lesson.
Okay, this little story is one of my absolute most favorites. We had a babysitter two weekends in a row. One must have been for the Education Foundation Trivia night, the other was for a funeral. The kids love our babystiter, Mia. On the second round she brought a bag of Cheetos and that inspired Nell's little story. I don't know why, but I thought it was hilarious! "Once upon a time there was a Cheeto named Addy. (her best friend) She was so kind and she was smart. She was so pretty every boy fell in love with her. She was married too. She had 2 kids, twins." And then the twin cheetos are Nell and Bella (our old neighbor who does after school care with Addy). Oh my gosh, I just giggled and giggled over this. What a thoughtful story! Nell couldn't quite figure out why a cheeto story was so funny to me. I tried to explain that the twin cheetos just made me happy (and so I laughed) and she responded "It's a romance story that's appropriate for kids. What? No one really writes those kind of stories." That of course just made me laugh out loud even more. Girl seriously made my month with this little cheeto book.
I took her and Coraline in for haircuts after school one Friday. When I first mentioned it they both panicked, they didn't want their hair CUT. I assured them it would just be a trim to help make their hair healthier ... well, by the time we went in they were both insisting on bobs.
I loved that in a room full of toys, they chose all the imaginext dinosaurs, and by they I really just mean Coraline. Mara kept trying to get her to play with the disney figures, but Coraline eventually won the battle and they both played dinosaurs. Reid would have actually loved these.
The whole family went to Reid's final basketball game.
Afterword we drove up to Kaukauna to see the Eagles at 1000 Island Nature Preserve. We only saw a couple eagles, and the real highlight was all the taxidermy inside the building.
Our little wildcat was excited about all the wildcats!
"Send this one to Mrs Martin, cause we are Oakwood Eagles!"
After we came home from that fun family outing, Reid and Nell joined up with some neighbors to go play on the huge snow mountain at the school. And that was the beginning of Nell's very bad, horrible terrible, no good week. The kids started a snowball fight and she got whacked pretty good with an ice ball. Then she fell and bit her lip. I wasn't actually there for any of this, so the neighbor brought her home screaming and hollering with a bloody lip. I was mostly annoyed because I thought she was way over reacting.
Near bedtime Ben took Reid to see Labrynth at the old downtown theater (they run old shows and donate the money to charity). So the girls and I were going to settle in for a movie, and that's when Nell fell down the stairs. I did feel real bad for her then, because I heard a lot of thumps! Her back seemed to take the biggest hit because that's what she kept holding and asking about.
The next day at Church she asked me to check her scalp for a bruise. I couldn't see anything, but noticed she was sensitive about that spot on the backside of her head.
Another neighbor invited a whole crew to go sledding at the park after church, so I took all the kids (during Ben's Sunday nap) and headed to the park. It was such a blast. Seriously, the best weekend weather, so perfect for lots of snow fun.
That night Nell started complaining a bit more about her head. I realized it might be a concussion, so I decided to go sleep with her for the night. She woke up totally refreshed and ready for the day! She didn't complain again at all until Monday night, just before bed. I just figured she was tired from a full day of school and her first night at Judo with Ben and Reid. But then at about Midnight I woke to her standing by my bed, complaining that she was shivering (while wrapped in a blanket). I decided to go sleep with her again and that night she was super restless.
To cut to the chase, she was diagnosed with both a concussion AND influenza b. Poor girl. I'd kept her home Tuesday, sent her to school for a half day Wednesday, sent her full day Thursday, and then kept her home all day Friday (when she was officially diagnosed). The appointment was really just for the concussion (and really only cause the school was pushing it). When the nurse suggested we test for the flu I was like "she only had a fever one night and it was never high. Also, she doesn't really have a cough," at which point Nell would always cough!
She did recover in just one day and was up running around all day today. But man, I was feeling pretty negligent and I know she was super frustrated about all this.
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